The Vegas Golden Knights are back in familiar ground – bounced from a hardy playoff run that didn’t have the legs, and gearing up for a summer with minimal cap space. It’s a situation the young franchise has already landed in, and weaseled out of, multiple times before – but the 2025 summer will offer a particular challenge. Vegas is only projected to have $9.62MM in cap space this summer, per PuckPedia. They’ll have to use that money to redefine the bottom-six, with seven different depth wingers all set to hit the open market this summer.
Some of those pending free agents should be easy to re-sign. Jonas Rondbjerg has averaged just 19 NHL games a season over the last four years, and has just 10 points in 76 career games to show for it. He’s a bump-and-grind AHL winger who shouldn’t cost more than league-minimum to re-up. Much of the same can be said for Cole Schwindt, who seemed mounted for a breakout with 42 NHL games this year, but ended the year with only eight points.
But the mission quickly gets complicated as Vegas looks to parse through the remaining names. Original Golden Knight Reilly Smith seems destined on re-signing with the club, after making a return from the New York Rangers at the 2025 Trade Deadline. He scored 69 points in 134 games in one-and-a-half seasons away from Sin City, and closed the season with 15 points in 32 games in a muddied role with the Golden Knights. Smith had a career-year in his last full season with Vegas – netting 26 goals and 56 points in the Cup-winning 2022-23 season – and age hasn’t seemed to slow him down one bit. With only a few years left in his career, a modest deal for both sides could ensure Smith plays his 1,000th career game, and retires, in the city he’s spent the bulk of his NHL career.
Victor Olofsson also seems worthy of another trial run. He wasn’t nearly as productive as Vegas might’ve hoped for last summer, but 15 goals and 29 points in 56 games is still a commendable season. That put Olofsson on an 82-game pace of 22 goals and 42 points, which would have been the most he’s scored since notching his career-high 49 points in the 2021-22 season. Olofsson also made the first playoff appearance of his career this season, and managed a commendable four points in nine games. Those are impressive results for a man receiving a $1.08MM salary. An assured role will likely require a boost in pay, but Vegas could hold onto good value even with a slight raise.
Smith and Olofsson could take up the bulk of what Vegas is hoping to spend on building out their bottom-six. That could leave a tough decision between Brandon Saad and Alexander Holtz, with pros and cons underlining each. Saad is a true veteran of the NHL and managed 14 points in 29 games with the Golden Knights while battling around routine injuries. He’s scored more than 20 goals and 40 points in two of the last four seasons – intercut by a season of 37 points and 30 points. Those aren’t bad numbers for a 32-year-old winger, especially one with Stanley Cup precedent and game-1,000 nearing.
Holtz is on the other side of his career, with just 46 points in 163 career games and a career-high of 28 points set last season. He only scored 12 points in 53 games this year, as he continued to struggle for ground in the lineup through a move to the Golden Knights. But Holtz was a seventh-overall pick just five years ago, and is still anticipating a breakout season. He’s under more team control as a restricted free agent, and would be a cheaper buy than Saad, but also brings plenty more risk to a Golden Knights club closer to another Stanley Cup run than any sort of rebuild.
Three modestly priced extensions, and a pair of league-minimum deals, will give Vegas plenty to work with as they build a lineup for next season. It also leaves just enough room for a cheap free agent addition. Any re-signed wingers would bolster the flanks behind Pavel Dorofeyev, Ivan Barbashev, Nicolas Roy, and Brett Howden – giving Vegas a very similar makeup to what they’ve rolled out for the last few seasons. But in deciding who to bring back, the Golden Knights will be laying out their preferences between original heritage, shooting luck, veteran presence, and young potential. What they make of those profiles could go a long way in defining Vegas’ chances at maintaining their yearly playoff presence in the seasons to come.
Photo courtesy of Sergei Belski-Imagn Images.
You forgot about Tanner Pearson.